Tetra-time travel watch



April 23, 1968 SHAOTANG LEE TETRA-TIME TRAVEL WATCH u L R n T w a m Q vIIIIIII J V 9 m 0 m m 0 v w h M h v S s 2 O I x- I m w w M W 0 6 w a? a9 s 5 WV OQJB. A 2. ww 2 *9 W 4 v o Filed Aug. 29, 1966 April 23, 1968SHAO-TANG LEE TETRA-TIME TRAVEL WATCH Filed Aug. 29, 1966 2 Sheets-Sheet2 Shae-Tang Lee INVENTOR.

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Waxy EM United States Patent 3,379,004 TETRA-THME TRAVEL WATCH Shae-TangLee, 25 Chi-inning St, Taichung, Taiwan Continuation-impart orapplication Ser. No. 417,841, Dec. 11, 1964. This application Aug. 29,1966, Ser. Na. 576,191

'7 Claims. (Cl. 58--42.5)

AESCT OF THE DISCLOSURE A watch including, within a Watch case, an outerlocal time dial ring and an inner rotatably mounted Greenwich dial, timeindicating hands mounted for simultaneously indicating time on both thedial ring and the inner dial, an a.m.-p.m. indicating ring rotatablyunderlying the local time dial and selectively indicating, through anopening in the dial ring, either a.m. or pm, and a calendar ringunderlying the local time dial ring and selectively exposing, through asuitable opening, the day of the month. The watch is also provided withmeans for effecting an automatic synchronized driving of the a.m.-p.m.indicating ring and the calendar ring, and in addition provides for aspecific orientation of indicia so as to enable an indication of time infour different time zones simultaneously.

This is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 417,841, filed onDec. 11, 1964, for World Travel Watch, noW Patent No. 3,318,085. Theinvention herein relates to a watch having special morning and afternoonindicator means (a.m.-p.m.-indicator), specially designed pairs ofindicia on the inside wall of the case-rim or on the local time dialring or on the case-rim, specially inscribed pairs of representativeindicia, longitudinal degrees and the names of the localities of thetwenty-four local standard times around the globe on the back, a speciallocal time dial ring, a Greenwich time dial disc, and the means forturning the Greenwich time dial disc. The last three items have beenspecified in detail in my above noted prior patent application. Thistetra-time travel watch is a twelve oclock watch, using three stripes toindicate twelve oclock, two stripes to indicate six oclock and thickerstripe to indicate three and nine oclock on both the local time dialring and the Greenwich time dial disc. These improvements shall enablethe new watch to indicate four different local times including theGreenwich mean time simultaneously. Once the new watch is adjusted, itcan also be adjusted When necessary to indicate any desired localstandard time and its opposite local standard time promptly withoutlooking at any other watch or listening to a time broadcast; theGreenwich mean time and its opposite Aukland local standard time shownon the new watch always remain unchanged; and the adjusting action willnot confuse the time of the watch by even a single second. This watchwill be very convenient to the travelers in this jet and space age, thusthe name Tetra-time Travel Watch.

FIG. 1 is a front view of the new watch showing its design in detail.

FIG. 2 is a detailed view of the back of the new watch showing itsspecial arrangement of the representative indicia, longitudinal degrees,and the names of the localities of the local standard times around theglobe in pairs.

FIG. 3 is the front view with portions broken away showing therelationship between the calendar-indicator and a.n1.-p.m. indicator indetail.

FIG. 4 is an enlarged partial cross-sectional view as designated by KLin FIG. 3 illustrating the relationship between the calendar-indicatorand the a.m.-p.m. indicator.

FIG. 5 is a similar enlarged partial cross-sectional view showing indetail the relationship between the turning means of the a.m.p.m.indicator and the turning means of the calendar-indicator ring in adifferent design.

FIGS. 6 and 7 are enlarged partial cross-sectional views designated byMN in FIG. 3 showing the relationship between the spring detent and thea.m.-p.m. indicator ring and the calendar ring in two different forms.

Referring now more specifically to the drawings, in this new watch,stripes are substituted for numerals as in modern watches. In FIG. 1,triple stripes 90, 90', double stripes 89, 89, thicker stripes 88, 88'and stripes 87, 87 indicating twelve oclock, six oclock, three and nineoclock, and the remaining hours respectively on the local time dial ring23 and the Greenwich time dial disc. The triangular (or any other shape)hole 82 in the local time dial ring 23 is for exposing the differentcolors of the segments of the a.m.-p.m. indicator ring. In the morningwhite will appear through the hole, and black will appear through thehole 82 when it is afternoon by Greenwich mean time. The hole 99 inlocal time dial ring 23 is for exposing the date. The middle stripe 50of the triple stripes 90" with arrow head at the Greenwich time dialdisc is for adjusting the new watch to indicate a desired local standardtime. The pairs of the representative indicia 20, 20' on the inside ofthe wall of the case-rim, on the case-rim, or on the local time dialring, act as a mark for adjusting the watch to be used in any desiredlocality of the twentyfour localities around the globe. Numerals 66, 67,68, 83, 35 and 33 indicate the hour-hand, the minute-hand, thesecond-hand, the calendar, the stem-winder and the turning gear of theGreenwich time dial disc respectively. Further, 81 indicates the darksegments of the a.m.-p.m. indicator ring. FIG. 2 shows the indicia 20,20', the longi tudinal degrees 21 and the names 57 of the localities oftwenty-four local standard times arranged in pairs at the back of thenew watch, 20 indicates the locality name of the eastern hemisphere and20 indicates that of the western hemisphere. For ease of illustrationonly one name in each local standard time zone has been shown, but inpractice we can write or inscribe more detailed names at the back of thewatch as follows:

FIG. 3 details the relationship between the calendar ring 83, and thea.m.-p.m. indicator ring. The inner edge of the a.m.-p.m. indicator ringhas thirty or thirty two round incisions 85 which are exactly the sameshape as the thirty one round incisions 86 of the calendar ring 83.

However, the a.m.-p.m. indicator has a larger diameter, is wider, andoverlies the calendar ring, having openings 95 to expose numerals of thecalendar ring. There are bright (or white) color segments 84 and dark(or black) color segments 81 on the a.m.-p.m. indicator ring. Instead ofusing colors, the alphabets am. (A) and pm. (P) may also be used. Forturning the a.m.-p.rn. indicator ring I have devised two devices. One isshown in FIG. 3, 4 and 6 and comprises a disc 74 having two projections73, 78 on the up side and two supports '76, 76 on its under side. Withthese two supports the disc is mounted on the turning gear 79. Theprojections 78, '78 and the supporters 76, 76 are all aligned on thesame diameter with a projection 77 on gear 79. The distance of theprojections 78, '78 from the disc center is a little longer than thedistance of the projection 77 from the center of the gear 79. The numberof the round incisions, segments and openings is thirty. Thecross-section of the spring detent 91, biased by spring 94, is as shownin FIG. 6. The other device does not use disc 74- but is formed byadding two longer projections 96, 96' to the gear 79 a little nearer tothe center than the original projection '77 of the gear 79. This timethe cross-section of the spring detent 91 is shown in FIG. 7 and thecolor segments, openings and round incisions are thirty two in number.By either one or" the above two devices the a.m.-p.m. indicator ringwill be turned and pushed by the projections '73, 78' or 96, 96'. Springdetent 911 will engage and position one segment every twelve hours, thatis the white and the black color will appear in the hole 82 every twelvehours alternately to indicate morning and afternoon for Greenwich meantime. The calendar ring will be turned and pushed by the same gear andspring detent 91 will engage and position one segment every twenty fourhours. Having an actual sun position, an a.m.-p.m. indicator will not benecessary for a watch in indicating local time. As shown in FIG. 1 thearrow head 59 of the Greenwich time dial disc is pointing at the indiciaP-At, that means the watch is being used for Peking local standard timeand Atlantic local standard time. Consequently, the new tetra-timetravel watch in FIG. 1 indicates simultaneously times of four localitiesas follows:

(1) Seven oclock forty five minutes and three seconds in the morning onthe twenty first day of Peking local standard time.

(2) Seven oclock forty five minutes and three seconds in the afternoonon the twentieth day of Atlantic local standard time.

(3) Eleven oclock forty five minutes and three seconds in the morning onthe twentieth day of Aukland local standard time.

(4) Eleven oclock forty five minutes and three seconds in the afternoonon the twentieth day of Greenwich mean time.

When the Greenwich time of this new watch passes twelve oclock in theafternoon, namely eight oclock in the morning of the Peking localstandard time, the color in the hole 82 will change to white and thecalendar date change to twenty one, that means the new watch indicatesmorning of the twenty first day Greenwich mean time. When the timepasses eight oclock in the afternoon at twenty first day of the Pekinglocal standard time, namely twelve oclock at noon of the twenty firstday at Greenwich mean time, the color in the hole 82 will change toblack to indicate pm. at the Greenwich mean time. Suppose the owner ofthis new watch is travelling from Taipei to Chicago and arrives at theabove mentioned time, the owner can adjust the arrow 50 to point to theindicia L-Ch rapidly by pulling and turning the winder 35 as specifiedin my Patent No. 3,318,085. The watch will indicate the time-five oclockforty five minutes and three seconds in the afternoon on the twentiethday of Chicago local standard time, Greenwich mean time of this watchremains unchanged at eleven oclock forty five minutes and three secondsin the afternoon on the twentieth day.

Up to the present, the only way to indicate morning and afternoon in awatch was by using the numerals in a twenty four hour dial watch, nospecial acting a.m.-p.m. indicator had been devised for this purpose. Asspecified above, by combining this new invention with my formerinvention, a new watch of unexpected efificiency will result, that isone watch usable as four watches telling times of four localities at thesame time. This new watch is very convenient to the space traveler andsupersonic speed jet traveler. Therefore, I name this new watchTetra-time Travel Watch or Space Master Watch.

The foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principle of theinvention. Further, since numerous modifications and changes willreadily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limitthe invention to the exact construction and operation shown anddescribed, and accordingly all suitable modifications and equivalentsmay be resorted to, falling within the scope of the invention asclaimed.

What is claimed as new is as follows:

1. A multi-local time telling watch comprising, within a case, a localtime dial ring, first and second viewing holes through said local timedial ring, an a.m.-p.m. indicating ring underlying said local time dialring and rotata-bly mounted for a sequential exposure of selectedportions of the a.m.-p.m. indicating ring through the first of saidviewing holes, said selected portions of the indicating ring includingalternating and pm. indicating indicia, a date indicating calendar ringunderlying said local time dial ring and rotatably mounted for asequential exposure of selected portions of the calendar ring throughthe second of said viewing holes, said selected portions of the calendarring indicating the days of the month in sequence, and means foreffecting an automatic synchronized rotation of both said a.m.- p.m.indicating ring and said calendar ring for exposing a subsequent one ofthe selected portions of the a.m.- p.m. indicating ring every 12 hoursand a subsequent one of the selected portions of the calendar ring every24 hours, said calendar ring underlying said a.m.-p-.rn. indicatingring, said a.m.-p.m. indicating ring including a series of openingsthercabout for sequential alignment with the second viewing hole for theexposure of the underlying portion of the calendar ring therethrough.

2. The watch of claim 1 wherein said means for effecting a rotation ofsaid rings includes a gear driveable at the rate of one revolution per24 hour period, means mounting a pair of diametrically opposedprojections on said gear, means on said a.m.-p.m. indicating ringperiodically sequentially engaged by said projections for advancing thea.m.p.m. indicating ring one portion, means mounting a single projectionon said gear, and means on said calendar ring periodically engaged bysaid single projection for advancing the calendar ring one portion.

3. The watch of claim 2 including spring detent means engaged with saida.m.-p.m. indicating ring and said calendar ring for selectivecooperation with both the pair of projections and the single projectionin effecting the advance of the a.m.-p.rn. ring and the calendar ring.

4. The watch of claim 3 wherein the means on the a.m.-p.m. and calendarrings comprise recesses about the inner peripheries of these rings, saidspring detent means engaging these inner peripheries and selectivelyseating in said recesses.

5. The watch of claim 4 including a central dial mounted within saidlocal time dial ring in a predetermined relationship therewith and forselective rotation relative thereto.

6. The watch of claim 5 including indicia about said local time dialring indicating 12 hours, indicia in outward radial alignment with thehour indicating indicia indicating different time zones, said time zoneindicia, at each of the 12 locations, indicating the opposed time zonesin the eastern and western hemispheres whereby all 24 5 time zones willbe indicated about the local time dial ring.

7. The watch of claim 6 including indicia about said central dialindicating 12 hours, said central dial indicating Greenwich time and theopposite International Date 5 Line time, whereby two opposed local timeswill be indicated simultaneously with the Greenwich and InternationalDate Line times so as to provide for a simultaneous indication of fourtimes in four locations about the world.

5 References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,732,934- 10/1929 Giusto 58-43RICHARD B. WILKINSON, Primary Examiner.

M. LORCH, Assistant Examiner.

